


cottage by the sea

by grumpysimon



Category: In the Flesh (TV)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Fluff without Plot, I JUST WANTED TO SEE THEM HAPPY AND NOT CRYING AND HEARTBROKEN, M/M, Post Series 2, i can'tT, this shit is so sugary fluffy that it might give you diabetes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-07
Updated: 2014-09-07
Packaged: 2018-02-16 10:51:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,379
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2266980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grumpysimon/pseuds/grumpysimon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which sad zombie boyfriends become happy zombie h u s b a n d s</p>
            </blockquote>





	cottage by the sea

**Author's Note:**

> literally what the fuck am i doing  
> all i'm saying is i was gonna begin working on my SBB stuff and then i was like NEED FLUFF so I wrote fluff.  
> I'm supposed to be posting my skinny dipping fic ahaha  
> anyway, I hope you enjoy it. Literally I'm like 1/3 aware of what I'm doing lately mostly just being sad about fictional characters. Please leave a comment or a kudos if you enjoy, it really means a lot to me as a writer.

  
There was really no plan to it. No saving money in a jar. Buying plane tickets was never discussed. Maybe it's just that tired souls wake up some mornings to realize the place they've been all their life isn't for them anymore. Kieren had wanted to stay in Roarton for a while, with the people he loved (especially Simon,) so they did. Every day of every week was filled with things it wasn't before- kisses and hope and feeling the want, the desire to be _alive._ But the town stayed the same, just a little bit quieter. Amy wasn't there to fill the silence. Mundane and dull. Her absence strangled the air. Simon and Kieren became closer, Kieren moving into the bungalow. Time to forget the pain and the silence and fill it with love.

When Kieren was asleep, Simon kept looking at pamphlets; photographs; travel magazines. Wanting to get away- but not wanting to leave without Kieren. So they stayed. Heads in laps. Fingers entwined.

In the end, it was Kieren that decided to leave. The day he decided to leave was a morning, weak strings of sunlight peeking through the curtains like children peeking at their mothers. His head was in Simon's lap, that weakly sunny morning.

Mornings were Kieren's favourites, because they were the moments that the world felt the most changeable. One could take the world head on, and they knew it best in the morning. World at his feet that morning, Kieren made an internal decision. He wanted to leave. Cabins in the hills. Bungalows in the woods. Houses in cornfields. Cottages by the sea.

"Let's run away."

Simon looked up from his book. Something classic and weathered, probably. He liked those kinds of things. "What?" He questioned, smiling a little. Convinced Kieren was joking.

"I mean it, let's just leave," Kieren said, sitting up, startling Simon. Repositioning, he continued. "Why do we need to stay here? I've been here too long, and I'd like to have some miles under my belt."

Squinting, Simon replied, "but I thought you didn't want to leave." Shrugs in return.

"There are too many places out there that I haven't seen yet. As long as you're there, I'll be fine." He snuggled right back up to Simon. Eyes crinkling when he smiled: Kieren decided that was his favourite thing about Simon. Grumpy, serious Simon. Secretly a _massive dork._

"But your family is here! What will they think?" He kissed Kieren on the forehead. Something changed in Simon when he genuinely realized that Kieren wasn't leaving him. Trust. Carefulness, treading on ice he knew was bound to crack. That was how he was at first. Not anymore.

"They will be proud of me. Because I will be leaving and doing my own damn thing with a _beautiful_ boy." Kissing him this time for real, Simon replied: "well I _guess..._ "

Laughing, Kieren snuggled closer to Simon. Less snuggling and more using Simon as a human blanket by now. "So where will we run away to?" Simon questioned, chuckling lightly. So many different places spiraling in his head. Traveling was the best way to see that the world was an exquisite place. Especially when you're in love.

"I have an idea..."" Kieren said. A nod in encouragement to continue..

"The beach. Somewhere small and secluded. Alone with you." Vague memories of Kieren's childhood filled his mind. Running by the beach with Jem, splashing in the waves. He still remembered the ocean being one of the most magical places on the earth. There was something enchanting about crashing waves. Sand captured between your toes. Tossing in a unfamiliar body of water. Feelings of not being in control of where the water would take you.

"Decision made." Deal signed with a kiss.  


  
PART 2 

 

Going along with it. That was the story from then on. Telling Kieren's parents was the hardest part, but they didn't say a thing to it. Encouragement was what they gave. Offered money. Showed travel websites. Sent the couple on their way.

A small little cottage by the sea. Rushing waves during the night. Collecting sea shells in the morning. That's what they were going for. Determination kept them going, knowing that they'd be going to something new. But there wasn't any reason to mourn anymore. Amy would have given them both the encouragement, pushing them out the door to someplace new. She would have wanted to see them happy. And they weren't going to be happy there. Maybe content, pleased with a life in a place that was all too familiar. Holding bittersweet memories, first kisses and first deaths. Second lives, too. On top of all of that, there was so much hope. However, there was promise in the unknown: promise in a wish to get away.

But moving away wasn't the only decision they made. Buying a car wasn't either, neither was picking out bed sets and more jumpers Simon. By the time they were ready- which took only the span of a couple weeks. Backs packed. Car packed. Life packed up in a neat little suitcase, ready to go. Loving more than ever. Loving more than Kieren had loved anyone else, more than Simon had loved anyone else. The day that it was time to leave- when hugs and kisses and awkward sibling-y farewells were exchanged, there was a ring tied to a ribbon on a pair of boots for Kieren and a jumper for Simon. Within moments.

The two hadn't coordinated anything, but separately they had realized. Undead already, and they had all the time in the world. They knew that. But maybe it was that a small car packed full was a sign. Although they'd be alive for so very long; it was time to be all the way. One hundred percent of the way. Accidentally proposing at the same time. Undead boyfriends to undead husbands. Dumb enough to pair gorgeous rings with ugly clothes.

So they did. Right by the sea. Right by the little cottage by the sea. The waves were crashing and it was sunny enough, sunnier than Kieren had seen it, probably. Less green of nature and more blue of ocean. Hands together. Jem crying a little bit. Sue crying a little bit. Steve crying yet smiling like the over-emotional father he was. A little too dramatic but still happy like it was supposed to be. Second lives were the best time for second chances. Second love. They'd already been hurt- over and over again. Numbing the pain with a lot of things. Hurt people would find the best salvation in love. Fragile. Strengthened in rings on each other's fingers, names engraved on the insides. Like names engraved on trees, but more permanent. Stuck together like glue.  


  
Epilogue

  
Maybe they were a tiny bit bruised. From past lives and from bits and pieces of the present lives. And if it was possible for the undead, they'd be a a _lot_ bit bruised from the sex. Which may have happened a little bit too much? Nah. Absolutely not.

The sea was cleansing. The waves crashing were the only things they could hear, and there weren't people for long stretches of ocean.  
Kisses and bites of the insides of lips.

The sea was gorgeous at night. Enchanting, just like Kieren had wanted. There was still a numb old pain, but nothing from past or present felt so sharp anymore. It was like a teen romance novel, with long walks on the beach. Talk that winded deep into the night, going into the smallest details they never would've gotten into. Simon never would've knew about the time Kieren attempted to pierce his own ear. Secrets that didn't feel so secret. Being dead felt like being alive again- but not the alive that hurt. Pain wasn't drowning, sadness wasn't engulfing. The only thing you were swimming in was the sea, and maybe love. Drowning in love.

The couple worked their way through stacks of films. From horror movies to classic romances. Always a little intertwined during these movie nights. Hands around each others shoulders, heads in laps. Consistently touching. The sex came later, in which Kieren learned that Simon was incredibly prudish to the level that he was dorky.

 

They solved that problem quickly.


End file.
